The aim of the project is to investigate the nature of nostalgia using a methodology, which combines a
first-person phenomenological perspective with a focus on how nostalgia has been shaped historically.
Over the last two decades, research on nostalgia has flourished from across several disciplines. In
tandem with this research, nostalgia has become a central trope in contemporary society. Despite its
ubiquitous presence, nostalgia is poorly understood.
The projects core claim is that to understand nostalgia we need to (i) conduct a
phenomenological analysis of the first-person experience of nostalgia in order to clarify the salient
structures of the emotion, and, (ii) grasp how the contemporary idea of nostalgia has been shaped
historically.
Such an approach is unique. To date, philosophical research has tended to focus on either the
lived experience of nostalgia or its historical dimension. Moreover, while psychology has made
important contributions to the study of nostalgia, what has been overlooked is the first-person
experience of nostalgia in favour of a third-person perspective. As such, there is a significant lacuna
when it comes to an analysis of nostalgia that is attentive to the thematic structures of nostalgia
together with a focus on how those structures are historically shaped. The research argues that a
phenomenologically grounded methodology can (i) determine the philosophical importance of
nostalgia, (ii) shed light on the nature of nostalgia, and (iii) demonstrate how the contemporary idea of
nostalgia is grounded in a series of problematic presuppositions.
In undertaking this research, the project pursues three overarching aims:
1.To establish a conceptually sophisticated account of nostalgia though schematizing
nostalgias key structures.
2.To clarify the relationship between nostalgia and homesickness using a phenomenological
methodology that is informed by a historical perspective.
3.To determine the role nostalgia plays in contributing to health and illness.
The project will achieve the following results:
1. Advance the field of research on nostalgia. To date, there has been no systematic
philosophical study of nostalgia. This lacuna is not only academic; it is societally and
politically relevant given the status of nostalgia as a contemporary issue.
2. Develop a cross-theoretical model of nostalgia, applicable to different affective states, thus
opening up new avenues of research within the humanities and beyond.
3. Advance the field of research in philosophy of emotions by drawing attention to the role
historical dimensions play in shaping the understanding of emotions.
4. Problematize the understanding of nostalgia as unequivocally distinct from homesickness;
and as a result, develop a more subtle account of the affective structure of nostalgia in terms
of its contribution to health and illness.